This invention pertains to tackle used in sailing vessels and on board boats, and in particular to a novel shackle of simple configuration and smooth surfaces of especial utility in constraining the clew of a jib sail.
Shackles known in the prior art comprise the type in which a threaded pin must be screwed into place, to bridge across apertured bifurcations, and the type in which a closure gate is spring-biased. The former type useless if, as often happens, the pin is lost (dropped overboard), and is time-consuming, requiring the pin to be patiently turned into its socket. As for the latter type, the gate falls out of place, or the spring fatigues and the closure opens inadvertently. Besides these limitations, the prior art shackles have protruding hardware, abrupt edges, and discontinuities. As a consequence, they become obstructively engaged with stays and lines. When it is necessary to move the shackle, by lines coupled thereto, it experiences the aforesaid obstructive engagement. Consequently it becomes necessary to remove the shackle, by hand, from its inadvertent engagement with such line or stay, or the like. On sailing vessels, in which the shackle is used to control the jib sail, this means that a crewman must physically move out onto the bow and free shackle. This can be dangerous; at least it is a great inconvenience.
What has been needed for some time is a shackle of simple, fool-proof construction and functioning, and of smooth, continuous, and projection-less surfaces, so it is an object of this invention to disclose just such a long-sought shackle.